Band aid

Music groups rally to help beloved soundman pay his soaring medical bills

January 18, 2006|By Matt McGuire. MATT MCGUIRE IS THE METROMIX MUSIC PRODUCER.

Gary "Elvis" Schepers isn't used to the spotlight. In fact, he's made a career staying out of it, whether it's behind a soundboard in the back of a club or behind a bulky tuba, which he occasionally plays with Devil in a Woodpile.

So while Schepers isn't a well-known name, many of the musicians he's worked with are. (And many, many more are completely unknown.) A range of those artists--enough to schedule nine concerts, with more likely to be announced--are pitching in over the next few weeks to help the uninsured Schepers with mounting medical bills.

"He was a fixture at Lounge Ax and some other clubs around town when I first started going to clubs," said Bloodshot Records co-founder Nan Warshaw, who's organizing the concerts with local chanteuse Kelly Hogan. "He was just everywhere. And, in that way, he's been an essential part of Chicago's music scene. Certainly not specifically for Bloodshot bands, but all the underground rock stuff going on around town."

Schepers has toured with Material Issue, Uncle Tupelo and Eleventh Dream Day. And he's worked as the soundman at just about every club in town, though he's put in significant time at Lounge Ax, FitzGerald's and, most recently, Abbey Pub.

It was after a night working the soundboard at Abbey Pub that Schepers checked himself into the emergency room. His foot had been bothering him for days, and by the time doctors finished running tests they told Schepers he had type 2 diabetes and his foot was infected with a variation of the bacteria that causes strep throat.

Schepers, who like many in the music industry is uninsured, spent the next several weeks in the hospital and is now undergoing rehabilitation therapy in a nursing home. Friends says he isn't out of the woods yet and has a long way to go before he's back at full speed.

His medical bills will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Warshaw estimates, pointing out that every dollar raised will go toward a trust set up for Schepers.

"Once we found out he was sick I said, 'Well, let's throw a benefit for him. I'm sure there'll be a lot of bands that'd want to play,' " Warshaw said. "I had no idea of the amazing response it'd get. Within four days, I had offers from 25 or 30 bands who wanted to help."

Tim Rutili has known Schepers since the late '80s, when Rutili fronted the band Friends of Betty. Schepers produced the group's first album and toured with Rutili's second band, Red Red Meat, first as the group's bassist and later as its soundman. Rutili's current band, Califone, will perform at two of the benefit shows.

"He's really, really committed to what he does, and he's really, really good at it. He knows who he is, and that's inspiring in anybody," Rutili said. "He is an archetype of what a soundman is supposed to be."